Choosing To Be Present

What’s next?  What am I looking forward to or looking to get through?  What is the trip I am excited about or the event that I get to attend?  What is the next thing to push through at work?  What is the next adventure, the next time that something is exciting and new and fresh for me? 

How often do we adopt the mindset of looking ahead and being excited about what is to come rather than being in the here and now?  How often are we time traveling and thinking about what is to come rather than making where we are delicious and amazing?

I have been traveling a lot this week.  I will be on the road twenty days this month.  Being on the road naturally pushes the mind into thinking about the planning, the logistics, the next thing, the transportation schedules, the where I am staying, the where do I get Wi-Fi mentality. 

In other words, your brain is naturally in preparation and planning mode.  It takes something, intention mostly, to get back to the present, to get back into that noticing mindset of taking in the beauty to being present to where I am now. 

I have taken to giving myself a “shot clock” to make sure I am getting to present and I am committed to joy and fun on my travels.  The “shot clock” is basically that I give myself some time frames to kick my brain into focusing on the now. 

Once I notice my mind is drifting into the “what’s next” mode, I tell myself, “OK, you are allowed to stay in this mode for the next minute.”  Then I put my phone away and look out the window.  Or I pick up a book or find something to see or hear or smell that will bring me to the present.

I also set the intention to be in joy and fun.  An example of this is when I was delayed an hour-and-a- half (although I had no indication how long the delay would be, because it was a weather delay) for a thirty-minute flight recently.  

Instead of being frustrated and annoyed (a completely natural response to delays), I decided I would use the time to stretch and loosen up my back and hips.  As I began to do some yoga poses a group of three women noticed me and asked if they could join. We ended up doing a forty-minute exercise class right there in the terminal.  As soon as we finished, the airline announced we would be boarding our plane in ten minutes.  Fun and joy. 

So here is what I learned this week.  We have a choice. Do I get caught in the stress of planning?  Do I get caught in frustration or do I decide when and what I will focus on? 

When I am the creator of my life rather than the passenger, I fully embrace my humanity and the power of the choice.  So choose today by answering these three questions:

What will I focus on?

What will I do to get present?

What will I be?